A bit of bling!

Thanks to California’s Sonoma Cutrer, I have just spent a great evening sipping their delicious Russian River Chardonnay and viewing some of Britain’s best jewellery. Located just off Covent Garden, tonight was the kick off of jewellery fashion show Treasure - a true haven for women (and perhaps some men) with more than 50 designers showing some of their best pieces. Wine and jewellery – a new combination for me but one that works really well! Now I’m off to bed to dream about the most beautiful pearl ring made by fabulous designer Yumeko Yamada…

25% off Waitrose Wine Direct

Just a quick note to let you know that Waitrose wines online is currently offering 25% off all of its wines and champagnes! You have to buy a full case but I’m sure most of you won’t have a problem with that! Enjoy, and don’t forget to invite me over…

Oh, that rosé!

So tonight, being sunny and beautiful, we decided to try the Camel Valley rosé. It was a delightful, deep coloured pink with lush raspberry and strawberry fruit flavours. Fairly dry but very fruity. A glass in the garden and then we matched it with prawns cooked in chilli and garlic served on a bed of egg noodles topped with green beans. The chilli ended up being quite aggressive but the sweet fruit flavours of the wine worked well with the spice.
All Camel Valley’s wines are available to purchase on their website.

Camel Valley

This past bank holiday weekend Mathias, I and Anna went to Cornwall for a bit of camping and beach life. However, no trip is complete without a twist of wine and it being English wine week and all, we decided to visit Cornwall’s Camel Valley winery. Although it was a bit wet in the air when we arrived, Camel Valley is gorgeous. Located on slopes close to the river Camel, it’s the type of place you envy and inspires all kinds of dreams of having a winery on the countryside… However, this place also makes some serious wines and after tasting through their range we found some clear favourites. On of them, the Camel Valley Bacchus 2007, we had yesterday with steamed green English asparagus (drizzled with lemon infused olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese). The Bacchus had some real enticing elderflower notes and a really zesty and fresh plate, there’s no wonder this wine recently won a gold medal in the International Wine Challenge. Another wine we really liked from Camel Valley was its rosé – a true summer wine with serious strawberry fruit flavours. Perhaps one for this afternoon, as today must be the best day so far this summer!

Friday’s Champagne tasting

Many thanks to all of you who came to the tasting – I had a brilliant time and I really do hope you enjoyed it as well! Any feedback, comments or suggestions for future events are very welcome. I have yet to find the answer to Anna’s question on the reasoning behind always producing champagne as a sparkling wine, I’ll get back as soon as I find a plausible explanation. Meanwhile, I can only suggest we continue to relish in these delicious bubbles in a blissful state of ignorance! Below are the wines we tried, paired as they were presented on Friday.

Waitrose Blanc de Noirs NV Champagne
Made only from Pinot Noir, this champagne just received a trophy from the International Wine and Spirit Competition – if you feel you need another reason for trying it again. £17.99 at Waitrose
Waitrose Blanc de Blancs NV Champagne
All made from delicious Chardonnay grapes. £19.99 at Waitrose

Veuve Clicquot Brut NV Champagne
Pinot Noir dominated champagne, approximately £30 at various merchants.
Taittinger Brut Réserve NV Champagne
High proportion of Chardonnay in this wine, approximately £32 at various merchants.

Pierre Moncuit Blanc de Blancs 1999 Vintage Champagne
All Chardonnay champagne available from The Winery (see links) for £30.99
Jean Velut, Cuvée Millésime 1999 Vintage Champagne
A blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir available from The Winery, approximately £30.

Tasting preparation…

Champagne is probably one of my favourite wines although, as you probably already know, I’m a bit of a fan of sparkling wine in general. One thing that has always amazed me is the production of champagne and how different it is from still wine making. In champagne the ‘assemblage’ or blending of the wine is extremely important and so are the maturation time, the ‘riddling’ process and the final ‘dosage’. Plenty of terminology there I know, hence I thought I’d provide a couple of links to sites that explain the champagne production method so that those of you who are really keen get a chance to prepare for Friday’s tasting. Obviously, I’ll go through some of the stuff at the tasting but it probably won’t be in any great detail unless you start asking me lots of questions, at which point I will take no responsibility for talking too much… In the meantime, check out the links to 'The Wine Doctor' and 'Wikipedia' for good info on champagne and email me/leave a comment if you have any questions or thoughts. See you next Friday!

Back!

Wow, can’t believe I've been ignoring my own dear blog for this long…very sad indeed… For all of you who care, I've managed to pass all of my wine diploma exams and now only have a few essays to finish off before I’m done. Think that will be it for studying for a while… Anyways, preparing for our tasting next Friday and will soon post a bit of info about Champagne for those of you who feel like preparing!